


Crossing Lines

by elumish



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode: s02e13 Critical Mass, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 02:13:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3750853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elumish/pseuds/elumish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth had always been sure of herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crossing Lines

Elizabeth had always been sure of herself. It was a skill that was needed, when you were a diplomat; you needed to not only actually sound like you knew what was going on but actually know it, because politicians were good at reading lies and better at reading weakness.

Since coming to Atlantis, her choices had become more difficult, something she wouldn’t have previously thought was possible. Fighting things that ate people, it wasn’t like trying to get humans to talk to each other; there was no moral high ground to call upon, no common ground, no compromise. How could you talk to something that wanted to eat you?

This time, though, she had crossed a line. A line she might not be able to step back from. Torture…she had always been one of the biggest opponents of torture, had railed against it time and again to the United States government. And now she had authorized it. Had wanted it to work, even though she knew the statistics, knew all of the reasons not to commit torture.

The fact that it hadn’t happened didn’t make what she had done any better. You couldn’t pick and choose your moral positions based on how well they suited what you were facing at the time. That was the whole point of morality. Some things were absolute, some lines never to be crossed.

She considered stepping down. It would be a big fall, going from Atlantis to…nothing. Because that would be what she had if she resigned her post on the grounds of having authorized the use of torture against a citizen of the United States. Maybe she could end up in a teaching position in some back-end community college, somewhere they didn’t care that she had a redacted black mark in the middle of the mess of redacted notes in her resume.

More than that, though, was the fact that, in the end of the day, her people had to be able trust that she would do what was best for them. She was in charge of them; their lives were in her hands. If they didn’t trust her, how could they do their jobs?

And she wanted to be able to look herself in the mirror at the end of the day.

But at the same time, her job was to keep her people alive. And now she knew; there was very little she wouldn’t do when it came to that.

And if she saved all of those people, maybe it was worth it to become the person she had always argued against.


End file.
